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Recap
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NCAA West Regional homepage
NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament
West Regional Championship
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
Monday, March 15, 2010
(No. 1 seed) Seattle Pacific 76, (No. 6 seed) Chico State 68
SEATTLE PACIFIC HEAD COACH JULIE van BEEK
(On the game)
“I think we came out a little flat tonight and I expected us to try to win a little bit too fast, and instead I think we were a little bit stagnant. And then we went into the press and picked up the tempo and got the lead, and that was good. But gave up three threes to end the half and that brought it back. Chico was behind every game this week at the tournament. Against Humboldt, they were down by 13 with 10 minutes left in the game. You just knew they could come back.
“I was just really proud that in the second half, we had that first three minutes that were a bit shaky, but we put the press on and that worked and gave us some momentum. Synchro Bull and Natasha Smith were doing a great job of getting the ball down the floor for them. That changed the tempo of the game and made us aggressive.”
(On getting contributions from everyone)
“I think it’s a great, balanced victory. That shows how far our team came. At beginning of the year, if Daesha (Henderson) and Megan (Hoisington) weren’t in the game, we really struggled. And they had to be our leading scorers every night. It’s fun to see so many different people contributing. It’s fun to see us score 76 points. There were nights when we couldn’t score and we had to rely on our defense and our rebounding.
“I think that shows you how far we’ve come as a team. That’s what I’m most proud of about our team this year.”
(On what it took to get this far)
“We really had to commit to getting better each week on lowering turnovers and getting better on rebounds and working on our offense. We were doing that, and then Sydney (Benson) got hurt, everyone just kept rising to the occasions. Nyesha (Sims) and Caitlyn (Rohrbach) were two consistent players down the stretch that we really needed. I think we were the only ones who believed we would do it.”
(On her emotions at the moment)
“I’m still a little bit in awe. I had tears streaming down my face. This morning on the way to gym, I was in tears too. It was fun to see our alumni here. We worked really hard. Last year, we had three kids in the emergency room getting IVs. Not to take away from what Alaska Anchorage did, but it didn’t give us opportunity to put our best team on floor. Two years ago, we win every game, then lose the one you want most. To win tonight was huge.”
(On Melissa Reich’s MVP performance)
“Melissa persevered. She had some really great moments, but just getting that consistency. To see her running the floor and playing so big against Hawaii Pacific the other night, that was huge. For us to continue to advance, we need people to step up and Melissa has been the key. You can’t have an outside game if you don’t have an inside game.”
SEATTLE PACIFIC SENIOR GUARD DAESHA HENDERSON
(On the game)
“I just think we did an awesome job of remaining composed the whole game. Like Coach said, we came out a little flat. We never got quite got the momentum that we could have, but we did a good job of once we had press on of being aggressive of containing No. 3 (Bull) and No. 11 (Smith). They’re both great guards. We stayed together really well.”
(On the reserves)
“Our bench was awesome. They’re in the gym working hard every day for extra hours. It pays off.”
(On her emotions)
“It’s something you go to college and you always have the goal of making it to the Elite Eight. A lot of teams never have that opportunity. To lose two consecutive years on home court to the same team (UAA), it hurts. You remember that feeling coming into the tournament. We knew we had to play our best and play our best game as a team. Everyone had to contribute. It hasn’t really settled in that we won and going to Elite Eight.”
SEATTLE PACIFIC JUNIOR CENTER MELISSA REICH
(On her MVP performance)
“This is pretty much like my breakout tournament. All my hard work finally paid off. I give a lot of credit to the team and coaching staff. They’ve been pushing me really hard every day at practice, calling me out. Everything that needed to be said to me was said. They’ve been able to pull out the best in me. Came out at the right time.”
SEATTLE PACIFIC SENIOR FORWARD MEGAN HOISINGTON
(On the game)
“I think coming out of halftime, we made some adjustments as far as communicating better and doing things that we can control better and we did that, especially on defense.”
(On her emotions at the moment)
‘All three of us have been through getting to regional championship the last three years and losing, and we know that feeling. This feeling is great. I’m really happy that after tonight and celebrating, we can move on and look forward to coming on strong when we go out to Missouri.”
CHICO STATE HEAD COACH BRIAN FOGEL
(On the game)
“I just felt like tonight you saw the heart and the character this team has developed since the 15th of October. I’m extremely proud of the way we have grown as a group. We’re not use to that environment; we’re kind of a young group.”
(On the loss of Kristin Marquardt)
“She’s a big part of what we do. She presents a physical force. We gave up too many offensive rebounds, especially in the first half.”
(On play of SPU)
“You have to take your hat off to SPU. They’re a good team; they’re going to represent the West well.”
(On play of Natasha Smith)
“The kid never stops, never gives up. I’m going to tell you right now, she is the ultimate competitor. I’ve been coaching 20 years, and I’ve never seen a kid work harder, longer than this young lady right here.”
CHICO STATE JUNIOR GUARD NATASHA SMITH
(On the game)
“I think it came down to turnovers and offensive rebounding. If we just did what we were supposed to do: get a few more rebounds and put the ball in. We were fighting just like they were.”
(On tying the game early second half with a 7-0 run)
“I’m thinking like any other game: we’re going to come with it, and win. But that just didn’t happen tonight.”
